|
|
Post by Aeric Ecrai on Feb 20, 2009 19:20:46 GMT -5
After they had left Hale, Faust, Aliara, and her Druidok companion had made it a good few days down the road. The mood was optimistic, even though Faust would occasionally say something about it taking weeks to travel across the continent. Stops in towns would be necessary to restock on supplies, and there were no shortage of highwaymen, bandits, and other dangers.
The weather was bleak and chilly, as it should be in late February, but this didn't make it any better for the three travelers.
"You look cold," Faust remarked, staring at Aliara.
It was a shame she couldn't see, really. So much in the world that she was missing. Sometimes Faust wondering if a White Spark could become strong enough to cure the blind.
Also, she probably was cold. He was, because they hadn't the money to buy proper cloaks. The ones they wore now provided some warmth, but it wasn't enough to keep them from shivering occasionally.
|
|
|
|
Post by Willow on Feb 23, 2009 10:29:24 GMT -5
ooc- I'll post. AS SOON AS I GET HOME. I SWEAR. D:
|
|
|
|
Post by Willow on Feb 23, 2009 18:11:54 GMT -5
ooc- I HAS POSTAGE.
"I'm okay," Aliara whispered, drawing the thin cloak tighter around her shoulders. The small flames didn't feel near warm enough, and Nephir, who had taken the shape of a large, furry snow leopard, murmured deep in his throat and curled up alongside her.
The druidok had shed his own cloak when he had shifted, and it too lay bundled around Aliara's slight frame, muffling her face from the wind. He glanced at Faust, the end of his tail flicking, then rose and vanished into the brush of the wild. Aliara, startled at his sudden disappearance, stiffened and looked from side to side. After a beat, she settled back down on the ground.
"He's going hunting, I think. He always brings something back," she murmured sleepily, her head beginning to loll against her shoulder. |
|
|
|
Post by Aeric Ecrai on Mar 7, 2009 17:00:16 GMT -5
"Interesting companion you have there..." Faust said, mentally replacing the word interesting with the word creepy. Poking the fire with a stick, he wrapped the cloak tighter around himself to stay warm.
"The weather should be warming up soon as Winter turns to Spring, but don't expect the weather to get any better. We're headed north and the temperature is prone to drop. At some point we'll reach a large forest that will make a nice place to camp, but I've yet to see any landmarks I'd recognize to tell me it's distance from us."
|
|
|
|
Post by Willow on Mar 9, 2009 16:55:36 GMT -5
Aliara glanced in the direction Nephir had disappeared too, her expression softening. "He just worries to much," she explained, turning her head to the direction of Faust's voice. Her pale blue eyes flickered, then darkened to an unusual midnight shade. "Nephir was the one who rescued me. I can't ever hold his worrying against him. It's just the way he is."
She held her breath for a moment, listening cautiously, then let it go. A breeze rustled the trees, but there was still no sign of the reclusive druidok. "So where are you from? You don't talk like the natives." There was a mild curiosity in her usually expressionless eyes, and Aliara squinted. Things...felt funny. Was she seeing a shape? |
|
|
|
Post by Aeric Ecrai on Mar 15, 2009 21:03:54 GMT -5
Breathing a sigh, Faust ran his fingers through his stringy red hair. Of course, she would have asked about his family eventually, but that didn't mean he was very excited to talk about his, well, interesting past.
"I was born in Fabrith, of course. I grew up in Fortosa, but didn't live there long. My family moved to the Fabrith Capital City when..."
Faust trailed off. He trusted Aliara and was even growing a little fond of her, contradictory to his lonely nature. A wanderer, he had no friends. No time to make them, and the people he had ever even talked to enough to consider close had either ended up stabbing him in the back or dead. Or both. This part of his past he didn't enjoy delving into.
"...well, let's just say we had to move there. My father was a good man. Taught me most of what I needed to know about combat, and the rest I learned when I was forced to enlist in the United Army. The whole alliance of Raoro and Fabrith is just a memory in the back of my mind. I was six when the Commandant - then just a lone knight - and his band of mercenaries won us the October War. You couldn't have been but a child then, fifteen years ago. Of course, Commandant Ecrai was given the highest honors by both Empires and shortly after that was promoted to Commandant of the United Army. Of course, he established the Dawn Inquisition-" Faust winced when he said the name "- and began overseeing the training of the new recruits. I never met the man and have heard mixed stories of his character. For all I know, he's just as pompous and concerned with power as the rest of the government."
Faust paused, wondering if Aliara really cared about his life story or opinions. A good story always has an ending, he mused, and vouched to finish his.
"I more or less 'dropped out' of recruit camp when I saw how corrupt government can be. I made some good friends in that camp, but all were subject to brutal hazing of one kind or another. My pleas to the head of the infantry division - I think Locke was his name - were more or less ignored. One of my friends even suffered severe trauma during one of the hazing sessions and the people in charge seemed to do nothing about it."
Aliara looked quizzically at Faust.
"Dropped out?" she asked, puzzled. "I didn't know you could just drop out of a program once you were recruited."
Faust just grimly smiled, sighing and closing his eyes. Not that she could see him.
"I didn't. I ran, like a coward. All the people I know in the army are as good as dead to me now. Return to the Capital City wouldn't bode well with the locals. If one of the older soldiers saw me they'd probably rough me up. As for my father, he was..." Faust didn't like sharing this fact with many people, but there was no turning back now "...murdered right after I ran away from being a soldier. Since then I've just been wandering from city to city, chasing rumors of other vigilantes who attempt to keep the peace. I never expected to be traveling with a blind girl and a depressed Druidok, trust me."
Faust wrapped his cloak around him tighter still. The wind had picked up and it looked like more snow was on the way. Cold as it was, he still refused to "cuddle up" with that Nephinar fellow as a bear or other sort of warm fuzzy animal. They'd better get to the forest soon, or else they might suffer from hypothermia.
Chuckling to himself, he turned away from looking over the plains and turned back to Aliara, who was turning her head, almost taking the image of a person who could see. Odd, but not that odd. Those with no sight generally had a greater sense of hearing, after all.
"I bet you're bored to tears with my life story. Or, at least, what I've told you about myself. I trust you, but some things are too painful to share with people I've just met, even if they are as caring as you."
|
|
|
|
Post by Willow on Mar 17, 2009 12:13:54 GMT -5
Aliara squinted, as if looking very hard at something. Yes, she could see...something. While he spoke she listened, speaking up only once before falling silent again. She assured him quickly that she wasn't bored. Boredom wasn't in her vocabulary, and at the moment, it made even a less of an appearance than usual.
"Nephir!" she called suddenly. The leopard appeared in a moment, springing out of the brush with some sort of furry animal hanging from his jaws. His looked at her, and it was a beat before the druidok realized she was looking at him. Really looking at him. To be sure, he paced off to one side, but she didn't follow him, continuing to stare into the space where he had been. Strange.
The druidok dropped his catch and looked up at Faust before shifting. "I can spit it," he said, the words slightly garbled as they came from a mouth more cat than human. His eyes changed color too, going from gold to dark brown, almost black. He glanced at the prey, some sort of rabbit the color of the reeds, dark yellow brown and not very...filling. He'd have to hunt again later.
"So the Dawn Inquisition," Aliara said slowly. She thought she saw a glitter of something as Nephir changed, but she wasn't sure. The only steady thing she could see was Faust, and that was little more than a blur. "What do they do? And this Ecrai, man. What did he do to become so powerful? I mean, winning one war, surely didn't do that much for his rank..."
Nephir would have growled if he was still a leopard. Instead he contented himself with snarling silently and running a stick through the creature like a giant marshmellow.
ooc- You're so lucky I love you as much as I do. -.- |
|
|
|
Post by Aeric Ecrai on Mar 17, 2009 12:41:10 GMT -5
Of course, she didn't know. Not everyone was fortunate enough to grow up near the capital, nor did everyone hear the rumors.
"The Inquisition, aside from serving as the Commandant's personal bodyguard, is sworn to hunt down misusers of their Magii Spark. Anyone who exerts their Spark in an unholy or perverse way attracts the immediant attention of the Inquisition. There are only seventy-five Inquisitors, seperated evenly throughout their three divisions. They tend to hunt down those that meddle with the darkness or the dead too much. As you know, a Spark is the essence of life. To mix this with something dead, to try and infuse it with them is just...wrong."
It was clear that Faust believed this when he spoke. It made complete sense, after all. Sparks were what gave people life. Meddling with corpses and trying to give them life was disgusting.
"As for Ecrai, he's obvioiusly human but seems to have superhuman strength. He's a master tactician and an extremely skilled swordsman - from what I've heard, that is. Keep in mind that this is all rumor. It wasn't that he just participated in the War, he won it. He and a group of other soldiers under his command just...wiped out the enemy, division by division. The history books say nothing like it had been seen in an era. Some people say he's chosen by the gods. I just think he's full of himself and a good fighter."
Faust, passing the turning of Aliara's head off as just her good hearing, realized that she seemed to be looking at things. But she was blind, wasn't she?
"Are you all right, Aliara?" |
|
|
|
Post by Willow on Mar 17, 2009 18:21:50 GMT -5
"Don't judge a book until you read it," Aliara quipped, staring in Faust's general direction. Nephir was still watching her curiously, but she showed no more remarkable abilities of sight. Well, remarkable in her case.
"Umm...I'm not sure. Should I be seeing glows? Well. Glow. Just you. I think." She waved her hand in his direction and turned her eyes directly on him. "Funny. I've never noticed that before."
Aliara was tired, and cold, and not at all interested in what was happening. Why? She could see something and she didn't even care. Nephir drew close, having set up the whatever-it-was-on-a-stick.
"Aliara. Can you see me?"
The girl shook her head. Nephir was still completely invisible. Strange. |
|
|
|
Post by Aeric Ecrai on Mar 19, 2009 9:49:12 GMT -5
Faust squinted at Aliara, then stood up, stretching out his limbs. They had been sitting for quite a while.
"I say we get a move on. If we can make it into the forest before hitting the main road, travel will be much easier. The Woods of Agrebach are dangerous, but that means highwaymen avoid them as well. It will be much more easy to get supplies, as well."
He didn't know if they would go along with this. The Woods of Agrebach were infamous, but they were only going to skirt the edge. No one in their right mind would ever attempt to go deep into the Woods. |
|
|
|
Post by Willow on Mar 19, 2009 10:19:03 GMT -5
Nephir stared at Faust in disbelief. Aliara was seeing...something, and he acted like it was no big deal. The druidok snorted, looking from one to the other, then kicked snow and dirt over the fire. It extinquished almost immediately with a steady hiss, and now the druidok sat down in the snow and started pulling apart the barely cooked...whatever it was.
"Aren't you coming?" Aliara asked, disturbed. She knew what she was seeing, some sort of energy. But why didn't Nephir glow too?
"I'll catch up," Nephir replied, not looking at her. Unsettled, Aliara started off after Faust as well, chewing her lip. Faust was strangely uncaring about her...abnormalty(ISTHATAWORD??).
"The woods? I thought we were going to Mortega," Aliara said, almost falling over something. She was unused to walking without Nephir beside her, and he knew it. Weren't the woods a little out of the way? Aliara voiced the last thought aloud, then watched the 'glow' expectantly. |
|
|
|
Post by Aeric Ecrai on Mar 19, 2009 10:24:40 GMT -5
"That's true, but they're more safe than the roads," Faust voiced, pushing ahead.
He cared about her sudden ability to see, but didn't feel obliged to talk about it. He couldn't give any explanation, and didn't want anyone to grow too attatched to him, either. |
|
|
|
Post by Willow on Mar 19, 2009 10:53:33 GMT -5
ooc- This is Aliara's current expression. '---.---' As well as mine. Emo Faust.
bic-
Aliara allowed herself to shrug and followed him. Shortly after, a large black panther carrying a rucksack in it's mouth joined them, beetle-black eyes shifting restlessly. It was obvious about Nephir's opinion in their travels, but he was eager to get to their destination. He didn't mention that this was way out of their way. After all, Aliara didn't know anything about it.
The panther made a noise without opening his mouth as they neared the forest, looking unnerved. Aliara looked towards him, still seeing nothing but black, and frowned.
"What?"
He dropped the rucksack, as if it was blocking his vocals and shifted easily, shedding his panther skin in an almost fluid motion. "I don't know yet. Hold on." Again, he shifted, this time into the raven form that was familiar to anyone who knew him. It was only a few minutes before the bird returned.
"Travelers," Nephir murmured in a low voice once he had shifted back, glancing at Faust. The druidok didn't trust this man anymore than Faust trusted Nephir. "Know anything about it?" |
|
|
|
Post by Aeric Ecrai on Mar 19, 2009 10:56:35 GMT -5
Faust looked quizzically at the Druidok.
"Travelers? In the Woods of Agrebach? Are you sure you're seeing straight? No one in their right mind - aside from us - would travel through that place unless they have a death wish."
Like he had said earlier, they were just going to skirt the edge, so there was nothing to worry about. That Druidok was uncanny. Faust would rather just travel with Aliara, at least she could 'see' him. |
|
|
|
Post by Willow on Mar 19, 2009 11:07:16 GMT -5
"I'm not joking," Nephir said calmly. "Two of them. Cloaked fellows. A little odd looking."
He pointed, his voice barely above a whisper. As if they could hear him. "About thirty yards in. They're just talking. Want me to find out what's up?"
Now, Nephir was offering his services. That was out of the ordinary. Aliara's blank expression became surprised for a beat, and she turned her head in the direction of her guardian.
|
|
